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BMW USA, the Stateside branch of the Bavarian automaker, has launched a new video that offers a sneak peak at the 2012 BMW 3 Series being tested in extreme heat conditions. We’ve seen a lot of spyshots showing how fun a rear wheel drive car can look on the snow and ice when it’s undergoing winter testing, however BMW wanted to emphasize the fact that extreme heat conditions are just as difficult.

The test team traveled to some scorching-hot place in order to check if the car’s systems function under these conditions and to prove that a BMW handles just as well when you stick it into a figurative oven.

Unfortunately, the 2012 BMW 2 Series is covered in had camouflage panels, preventing us from catching a glimpse of the car’s proportions. The video doesn’t even focus on it for too long, but we can spot similarities to the lines of the new 5 Series. The clip is also interesting because of the fact that it reveals an un-finished form of the interior.

We expect the next generation will come with a larger kidney grille and a fascia that is in line with the carmaker’s recent design direction. At the rear, it’s all going to be about tradition, as the L-shape rear lights will be carried over.

Engine-wise, we can expect to see a lot of 4-cylinder turbocharged units, with outputs ranging from 120 to about 240 hp. The car we secretly all want, the M3, should come with a strait-six engine with twin-turbos, replacing the existing V8. We can only wait and see, unit the 3 Series is revealed sometime this year.